It was a horrific way to start a career in Hollywood — until it wasn’t.

In 2023, less than a year after landing their first post-graduation jobs in the entertainment industry, Joe Martinez-Weinberger ’22 and Cal State Dominguez Hills graduate David Clark were let go from their positions at Verve Talent Literary Agency. Casualties of the 2023 writers’ strike, the two aspiring filmmakers, who met at their former workplace, decided to take their fate into their own hands.

“Instead of just moping about it, we decided to find something that we were interested in, to see if we worked well together, and maybe even make something,” Clark said.

That “something” turned out to be the decision to make their first feature film, further motivated by a summer of unemployment. All they needed was a concept with a good hook.

While he wracked his brain for ideas, Martinez-Weinberger surfed the internet, watching mindless social media videos that were garnering millions of views. Before long, he realized that a premise had been staring back at him from his phone screen all along.

“It’s a whole other parasitic, cynical content form, where people just watch other videos instead of making anything, and the whole movie was born from that,” Martinez-Weinberger said.

Blending the worlds of found footage, horror and comedy, their film Clickbait is a social commentary on the darkness behind what “sells” views, and the lengths that streamers will go for a click. Ralph is a YouTuber hosting a livestream on Halloween night. As he and his viewers watch grisly found-footage videos online, he unwittingly broadcasts what turns out to be his own gruesome night for all the internet to see.

“Joe and I sat with the idea in mind, just to make something entertaining that resonated with what people were seeing online,” Clark said. “I really want people to come out and have fun watching a fun movie.”

Martinez-Weinberger and Clark were fortunate and found new day jobs as they developed the Clickbait premise, but that didn’t stop them from continuing to pursue their filmmaking goal, using what little cash they had to bring their idea to the screen.

“We knew that we weren’t going to make it in the industry if we just waited for opportunity,” Martinez-Weinberger said. “We had to make one ourselves.”

Working with a small budget and a strict schedule brought a new set of challenges, however.

To save money, Martinez-Weinberger and Clark assumed multiple roles on the production, both serving as writers, producers and directors. Martinez-Weinberger also became a stunt performer while Clark handled the visual effects and graphic design.

The duo worked late nights and weekends around their day jobs, creating an ever-changing and hectic schedule. Sometimes, there just wasn’t enough time in the day.

“I would call out sick from work just so we could go shoot,” Martinez-Weinberger said. “I faked COVID a couple times. I faked a lot of food poisoning. It was pretty nuts.”

During one night of filming, their production team was kicked off a set they had found through a friend. But the partners refused to get discouraged.

“We wrote and produced to what we had to increase the production value,” Martinez-Weinberger said. “[Clickbait] wasn’t for groundbreaking effects. It was for fun effects that elevate a goofy, comedic movie. As long as we were entertaining people, making them laugh, that’s all we really cared about.”

Approximately 60 people contributed to the film at some point, most of whom were Chapman students or alumni.

“Joe definitely had a really strong connection to the student body that he went to school with, and their connections, and that was awesome,” Clark said.

Eric Fox, who created the special effects makeup for Clickbait from his San Bernardino studio, was an exception. Fox began doing work for student films in the ’90s and has been collaborating with Chapman students and alumni ever since.

Though the Clickbait filmmakers were young and constrained by a tight budget, Fox said that they were more organized than his big-studio clients.

“They had a really good vision [of] what they wanted, and their communication was great,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and it was so impressive and so refreshing to see how well they did with this project and how great the final piece turned out.”

Martinez-Weinberger and Clark hope that Clickbait will serve as inspiration for those who dream of working in the film industry.

“If we [can] somehow inspire just one kid to go, ‘you know what? I’m gonna make my own thing,’” Martinez-Weinberger said, “then it would be worth it.”

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Clickbait screenings were recently held in Los Angeles, and the film was favorably reviewed by Bloody Disgusting. Martinez-Weinberger and Clark are currently looking for a streaming platform for the film.